Barham

Barham, RICHARD HARRIS, author of the Ingoldsby Legends, was born at Canterbury in 1788. In 1795 he succeeded to the manor of Tappington, and in 1802 he met with an almost fatal coach accident whilst on his way to St Paul's School, an accident that partially crippled his right arm for life. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford (1807), was ordained (1813), and in 1821 received a minor canonry of St Paul's Cathedral, three years later becoming incumbent of a City church, and priest in ordinary of the chapels royal. His first novel, Baldwin (1819), fell still-born; his second, My Cousin Nicholas (1834), appeared in Blackwood's Magazine; and with the commencement of Bentley's Miscellany in 1837, he began his series of inimitable burlesque metrical tales under the pen-name of Thomas Ingoldsby. They were first collected into a volume in 1840, and the third series was published in 1847 with a brief memoir of the author by his son. An English adaptation of the old French contes, the Ingoldsby Legends at once became popular from their droll humour, fine irony, varied and whimsical rhymes, and quaint out-of-the-way learning. His lyrics were published separately in 1881. Barham was a frequent contributor to the Edinburgh Review and Literary Gazette. He died in London, June 17, 1845. See his Life and Letters by his son (2 vols. 1870; 3d ed. 1880).